THE DYNAMIC WORK OF STAGE AND SCREEN ACTRESS ROMANE PORTAIL

Just saw the trailer for Urban Jungle and it looks terrific! Apparently, all the animals in the world go crazy for some reason and begin attacking and killing humans. I can’t see any anything wrong in that premise because, hey, animals have gotten the short end of everything ever since the Neanderthals decided to serve up a little something different, cooked over a 450˚ cave fire and served very well done on a stick. Can’t blame the animals for wanting a bit of well-earned retribution.

We also noticed a wonderful presence in the show, a French actress named Romane Portail. We’ve seen her before and she has always left us with the same thought in our minds: “We want more!” Yes, if you saw Romane on the big screen, little screen or stage you would want more, too. She has that special something about her. It’s more than just her physical beauty, which is substantial, it has more to do with the way she carries herself and the way she delivers her lines.

When she says something to her fellow characters it’s as though she has transformed herself into the character she is playing in the movie. And she has been in too many movies and TV projects to even mention here. When she becomes that character, another interesting and rather strange thing happens to the audience: we are transported away from any disbelief we might have brought in with us about how real the movie is and we become part of the film. We don’t have any lines, of course, but we are certainly present within the characters’ reality and their world. One way it can be described is that we are flys on the wall in each and every scene.

Romane has played countless roles and has become each character she has performed. She has convincingly played young women, middle aged women and women in different economic classes. Like Meryl Streep and other established, highly gifted and trained actresses, Romane has the ability to be chameleon-like in front of the camera. When she looks directly into the lens, she has the believability of Garbo, Juliette Binoche, Helen Mirren, Cate Blanchett and Marion Cotillard, among a handful of others.

Romane’s English is more than beautiful, it’s perfectly… perfect, just like all of her characterizations have been. Urban Jungle is set for release this month and we are excited about seeing the animals take a stand and about seing Romane again, in all her thespian glory.